"SPEAK! LISTEN!" A Training Course to strengthen Youth Participation in Decision-Making

Introduction Considering that is crucial to develop a culture of youth participation, especially when it regards the decision-making processes in the issues that are directly direct concern and interest of youth. The Hungarian, Italian, Maltese National Agencies in cooperation with SALTO Participation, decided to develop an innovative training course that aims to improve the capacity of young people to influence decisions that affect their life through working together with public authorities on local, national and European level. “SPEAK! LISTEN! A Training Course to strengthen Youth Participation in Decision-Making is a 5 full days training course, where participants will experience an intense learning process that will develop their competences to better understand the concept of youth participation and use it in their work with young people, while gaining new tools and methods for working together with public authorities. The course will also allow participants to develop their knowledge on the European policy in the field of youth and support to build links with the Structured Dialogue process taking place in their own Member States. At the same time they will improve the quality in planning, implementing and evaluating a project under KA3 (support to Policy Reform) within Erasmus+ Youth in Action programme. Aim and objectives of the TC The main aim of the TC is to improve the capacity of young people to influence decisions that affect their life through working together with public authorities on European, national or local level. • To increase understanding about principles of youth participation, • To provide learning opportunities about methods on how to work with public authorities for common objectives, and how to influence decisions affecting their life, • To raise awareness and knowledge about the Structured Dialogue of the European Union in the field of youth, • To reach a common understanding of what quality means in KA3 projects, • To develop competences, skills necessary to implement projects within KA3, • To provide opportunities for sharing good practices, concepts and activities, • To provide information about the funding mechanism of Erasmus+ in particular KA3, • To create space for finding potential partners and networking for future projects under Erasmus+ in the youth field.